Weekend Unwind

What a lovely weekend! We didn’t do a whole heckuva lot, but we enjoyed our time together. That is not to say that we weren’t occupied because we were. Our walk along the beach was the perfect way to unwind this three-day weekend.

I am extremely grateful for the chance to have another day & night at home before making the trek north to spend the week in Hattiesburg. I haven’t done half of what I needed to get done this weekend – there’s a grant application revision, determining what standards need to be focused on by analyzing the test blueprint, responding to things that have been sent to me. All of that will happen in the morning because right now I could care less. Terrible attitude, I know, but my time at home is my time at home. It will make my week extremely busy – there is so much I have to do in addition to what I was supposed to do this weekend, like 20 hours of online course work to prepare for the PD I’m attending next week.

That’s all OK, though. It was worth it to me for this weekend with my family.

We didn’t do much really – Saturday we ran to the store and did our shopping for the week or rather the next two weeks. We cooked. We went to a bonfire. We watched football. We went for a walk along the beach so I could take pictures for my 365 photo project.

We took down and put away Christmas, which is always the saddest thing to me. I hate putting away Christmas. I hate the lids going on the totes, the sparkle and the shine being cast away and put into dark corners and forgotten about until November. Fortunately I have a Sweet Husband who was willing to handle most of that for me. I got out of the shower to find him unwinding the lights. All that was left for me to do was to wrap the nativities and stash them safe away.

I spent the morning today putting the office back to rights – rearranging furniture that was moved to make room for the tree and the nativities.

Saturday night we attended what was supposed to be a bonfire with some of SH’s coworkers. The folks weren’t quite prepared for a bonfire – one log and our Christmas tree doesn’t quite make for a blazing fire. They did manage to get it flared up now and again, but we won’t talk about that. We were the only white faces there, but it has never bothered SH before. As we pause today to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I am reminded that when we boil it down, there is not so much difference between us all. The get-together we attended Saturday was like any gathering we’ve hosted or been to with any of SH’s other friends. The setting might be different, the music not what we are used to. But the truth is that we’re not that much different when you scratch beneath the surface.

Every year on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I read Letter From a Birmingham Jail. A writing project friend introduced me to the ritual. This year more than ones in the past, the words seem more and more apt – more timely and more urgent. Last week I taught the first part of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech to 6th graders, and one of the questions that I asked them while teaching was, “Why are we still studying this 50+ years later? Why do we care what Dr. King said 50 years ago?” And this year – with incidents in Ferguson and New York and Cleveland and other places around the country – it seems like King’s words from Birmingham – are more applicable than ever.

In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be…this is the inter-related structure of reality.

We cannot prosper as a nation if we don’t all prosper. When a large segment of our population is treated as unequal, none of us can be our greatest selves.

I see the truth of how far we still have to travel each day at work. Newspapers and magazines run stories about the growing income inequality problem, but for most of us, we spend our days working and paying bills and notice here and there how far our money isn’t going…but the knowledge is isolated to us. We might talk to a friend or two about their situation. But we’re too busy trying to live our lives to see the bigger picture. But I see it at work. I see it with the children who walk our halls. The gap gets greater; we work harder; we fall further behind.

Our country has some hard truths to face, some tough decisions to come to. We’ve needed to have these discussions for quite some time but we’ve put it off. I do not know yet that we are in any condition to actually have them now, as polarized as this country is, but I know we need to. We need to speak without guile, listen without defense. I don’t see that happening any time soon.

And speaking of hard truths, tough decisions – it’s time to think about my intentions for the week.

Weekly Intentions

I’ve decided that using my Core Desired Feelings to guide my weekly intentions isn’t quite working well for me, so I’m reverting to my previous way of breaking them out into categories.

Personal:

Read at least 20 minutes each day

Walk 30 minutes each day

Take my medication as directed

Meditate each day

Eat healthfully

Creativity:

Write every morning

Get blog posts scheduled for publication

Take a photo every day

Finish my maroon scarf

Professional:

Complete 20 hours of LETRS training

Organize plans

Complete required observations

I think that’s probably enough for one week, don’t you? What are you up to this week and how was your weekend?

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[…] holiday, but that was the very important part for me. That extra day gave me time to indulge in my MLK Day tradition and to think about where we are versus where we should be versus how far we have […]

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I'm a teacher, writer, and photographer capturing the magical moments of life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast - putting my experience as a teacher and educational staff developer to work crafting stories that chronicle an experience well-lived.

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All content - pictures and text - unless otherwise noted, is my creation. All content on this site is the property of Jennifer Allen - Owner & Creator of Pierced Wonderings. Duplication and/or unauthorized use of any content on this site without express written permission is strictly prohibited.